


guarded

by eggcelsior



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Drabble, Fluff, M/M, me being petty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-05
Updated: 2019-01-05
Packaged: 2019-10-04 12:40:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17304818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eggcelsior/pseuds/eggcelsior
Summary: inktober 2018day 13: guardedbasically my art teacher told me to do inktober last year in addition to a whole heap of work I already had to do for that subject so instead of drawing, my petty ass decided to use them as writing prompts





	guarded

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this in my wips for ages  
> I have a bunch I might turn it into a series? lemme know what you think lol

Andrew was a barbed wire fence to everyone around him. He was a thorn in their side quite a lot of the time, but that was the way he was comfortable. He was happy with people looking at him funny when the only thing he gifted them was the blank, deadpan stare he had worked so hard to perfect. He had spent a long time stood in front of a mirror recreating looks that he had seen on tv. Not that he was going to tell Nicky that his stare was inspired by the likes of Jim Halpert.

Nicky couldn’t read past the wiry blockage most days, and neither could Matt, Dan, Allison, Abby, oh how the list went on. In high school, he had been told too many times to count that he was emotionless. That if he didn’t get his act together then he would never get anywhere. One naïve girl from one of the many schools Andrew had attended had made the mistake of approaching him and telling him “you’ll never get a girlfriend if you look like the grinch all the time”. She had left him alone quickly after Andrew had opened his mouth.

Enigma. Stone-faced freak. Emotionless bastard. Fucking alien. The descriptions were all correct in some shape or form. But Andrew had wanted to be unsolvable, because if people couldn’t read you then they wouldn’t try to get close. People were tedious and not worth his time.

However, Neil was different. He didn’t give off that grey feeling – energy? Aura? – that the others who tried had. Neil had icy, runaway eyes and straggly, auburn hair that still made Andrew think _you can let your guard down_ over and over, even after all these years. He felt safe with Neil. It was a feeling that scared him on bad days and made him want to melt on good ones. Sometimes it made him stare into his eyes because _why why why why why me._

He could tell Neil felt safe with him too. There were so many tell-tale signs. It was the distant look he got when he talked about his mother, the photos he took when he thought Andrew wasn’t looking, the photos he took when Andrew _was_ looking, the dozing on their sofa with those dumb cats. It was stealing hoodies, making two cups of coffee in the morning, subtle looks that meant more than words could. It was every slow, lazy, languid kiss they had ever shared on that damn roof. Neil could read him like a fucking book and…

…and Andrew didn’t mind.

 He liked being able to say “junkie” and know Neil knew what it meant. He could bury the word into his neck and they both knew what it meant. They didn’t Russian, German any language to understand what _this_ meant.

So yes, he could be an enigma to everyone else. He could keep his towering stone walls built high enough that no one could scramble over. He could be that guarded person he was taught to be. But Neil would always see through it. It had taken time for him to admit it to himself, but Andrew was ok with letting Neil in.


End file.
